Who judges a person’s faith: God or ‘Change Golo’ in Malawi?

In life, there are some questions without answers and many more with no immediate answers as well. This should not demoralize one’s effort of searching the answers for such questions because such questions which seem sometimes not to have instant responses will have best answers sooner or later.

This fact has been proven right when I think about a question that has been in my heart for a number of years which seemed not to have an answer, but as my pen is pouring ink on this piece of paper, am happy that finally today I have found the correct answer to that question.

My problem started a couple of years ago which emerged from the song done by a Malawi music icon; Lucius Banda (I wish I mention the title of the song but unfortunately my memories are not good in this enterprise) but what I remember is few words that concerned me such as ‘ …kodi munali ndani inu, simunali aphunzitsi a madalasi..’ reads the song.

That time I thought the singer is abusing Islam or Madrasah teachers, but little did I know that the singer did not specifically mean that but rather he was referring to that person targeted in the song as ignorant Madalasa teacher. This is evident from the continuous bad sentiments by the victim of the song in political podiums.

Uladi Mussa: Foul mouthing opposition during presidential rallies

I have arrived to this conclusion after critically analyzing assertions made by this politician in many recent political rallies in the country and to be specific his recent speech at Lungwena Health Center in Mangochi few days ago. Uladi Mussa said“..Are they real Muslims themselves? One day we will conduct a test to find out who is a real Muslim. Some political leaders hid behind Islam which in fact they even fail to perform Islamic prayers”.

Critically looking at this statement, we find out that Uladi Mussa is out of truck because if he is a real Muslim as he claimed to be in a show-off manner he is not supposed to say these words, he is therefore contrary to the teachings of Islam. Qur’an and the teachings of the prophet Muhammad (PBUH) strongly condemn show-off practices in matters concerning religious rituals i.e. observing prayers daily.

Regarding this, the prophetic teaching tells us that on the day of judgment one will stand before Allah and claim to have prayed, help the poor, spend his money for pilgrimage and did this and that, unfortunately Allah will tell him that he did that not to please and praise Him but to be known in the community that he/she is a good mosque going Muslim etc., so Allah will say, go to hell!

In Islam no man is mandated to judge another man, only Allah does that. According to the teachings of Islam, the one who shamelessly claim to test or judge people’s faith is claiming the high responsibility of the creator who is the judge of all judges. Is it not high degree of sin and hypocrisy to takeover Allah’s responsibility? What is sad here is that according to the news the out spoken politician known as Mr. Change Golo was once a mere madrasah teacher, I beg a big pardon! Because if indeed this man was a spiritual teacher he cannot keep on spreading confusing sentiments that could bring enemity the way he is doing because a teacher is known to be a guider and a symbol of good morals in the society.

If indeed he was a teacher then I should say praise due to Allah for removing him from this noble field which is an instrument of disseminating good values. I sometimes wonder if such people have some ministerial work on their desks to attend to.

The second sad assertion uttered by this politician at the same rally is ‘I ‘am telling you as a fellow Muslim that all the holly books in Malawi both Qur’an and Bible there is no name of any political party. This is for earthly benefit..”. Again here I want to make it clear that this is a sad statement coming from the mouth of the one who claim to be a pious and devoted Muslim. This signifies that he does not really know Islam.

By expressing this baseless claim, we learn here that his knowledge is limited in this field hence I can proudly refer him to my previous articles published by this news titled; Islam and Politics and The concept of power and state in the light of Islam respectively where he will get the information he is lacking. Islam is a complete way of life therefore claiming that Qur’an and Islam in general is silent on issues concerning politics is unfounded assertions. We don’t need to see the name of a political party in holly books but we find politics in it clearly stated.

But because he is lacking this knowledge that’s why he is castigating his fellow politicians daily because he does not know that doing that is a sin before Allah. What is missing in the Qur’an is the dirty and primitive politics like what Change Golo is promoting. A politician in Islam is Allah’s vicegerent on earth hence answerable to Him. Bwana Change Golo, you should know that politics is not an earthly enterprise as you have claimed; you will be accountable for that on judgment day.

My advice to you is that you should put at the back of your mind that every single word you pronounce will be accountable. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) advised us to be very careful with what is between our jaws; meaning the tongue.

I would also ask him to look back and reflect where he was yesterday and where he’s standing today and most importantly to be conscious of where he will be tomorrow. He must learn a lesson that today he is enjoying the government fruits behind the president Dr. Joyce Banda who was just one year ago booted out and abused by many, some said ‘Malawi is not ready for the female president’ but God proved them wrong. You can only continue castigating your fellow politics only if you are very certain that the current administration will never leave power because if it does, the difficult equation here is that we don’t know who is chosen by Allah for that seat next.

Should people be ruled out of faith/religious simply because they are opposition and that they don’t speck your dialect ‘Yawo’? Should they also be not voted for presidency because of the same? This is contrary to what is written on Malawi’s Coat of arms ‘Unity & Freedom’. But Change Golo is promoting discrimination and tribalism.

Finally I leave you with the Qur’anic verse in which Allah said “Say, O Allah! Owner of Sovereignty, You give sovereignty (presidency) to whom you will and you take sovereignty away from whom you will. You honor whom you will and you humble whom you will. In Your hand is all good. Indeed, you are over all things competent” (Qur’an 3:26).

*Author of this article is Malawian Political Scientist currently residing in Malaysia.